A PRIMITIVE (BUT FREE!) CORN SHELLER

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AND HERE IT IS!

My homemade sheller is just a board with a large hole in it, around which four nails have been driven — at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions — at such an angle that their points protrude an inch or so inside the circle. You simply insert a dried ear of corn in among the spikes and twist it. The sharp ends scrub the kernels off the cob and into the container ... while your skin stays on your hands where it belongs! [EDITOR'S NOTE: For some ideas on how to utilize those cleaned corncobs, see page 10 in this issue.]

Although the model shown here is just a "one-holer", a row of three or four openings of different diameters works best, as they will accommodate a full range of ear sizes. The largest in the series needs to be about 3" across, with the inner circle (described by the nail points) slightly bigger than the perimeter of your fattest cobs.

Assuming you can find a board (a short length of 2 X 6 works perfectly) and some nails (20-penny common will be ideal), the most complicated step in building the device will be making the holes in the board. A brace with an expansive bit works fine for this, but if you don't already own such tools, they may cost more to purchase than would a corn sheller. I used a chisel to excavate the hole (the job took about half an hour) . . . and I suspect that a coping, keyhole, or compass saw would work OK, too. In any case, remember that the cavity doesn't have to be pretty, or even perfectly round . . . its sole function, after all, is simply to create a frame for the nail points.

In my experience (and I've had a lot of it!), a full hour is required to shell a bushel of corn by hand. And even with my homemade shelter (which is free. . . don't forget that!), the task takes 40 minutes. Perhaps that's no great shakes compared with the performance of store-bought machines . . . but before writing this article, I processed a bushel by the old twohanded method just to refresh my memory and to get an accurate idea of the time required. And I was mighty tempted to cheat a little bit . . . to reach over and do just a few ears on the homemade sheller! Need I say more?

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